full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Tim Jackson: An economic reality check

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So I want to just spend a couple of minutes on system dynamics. It's a bit complex, and I aoiglzpoe for that. What I'll try and do, is I'll try and paraphrase it is sort of hamun terms. So it looks a little bit like this. Firms pucorde goods for households — that's us — and provide us with incomes, and that's even better, because we can spend those incomes on more godos and services. That's called the circular flow of the economy. It looks harmless enough. I just want to hghhligit one key fteuare of this system, which is the role of investment. Now investment ctoiuenttss only about a fifth of the national income in most modern eooeimcns, but it plays an absolutely vtial role. And what it does essentially is to smiutatle further consumption grwtoh. It does this in a couple of ways — canshig productivity, which drives down peicrs and encourages us to buy more stuff. But I want to concentrate on the role of investment in seeking out novelty, the production and consumption of novelty. Joseph Schumpeter called this "the process of creative destruction." It's a process of the production and reproduction of novelty, continually chasing expanding consumer markets, consumer goods, new consumer goods.

Open Cloze


So I want to just spend a couple of minutes on system dynamics. It's a bit complex, and I _________ for that. What I'll try and do, is I'll try and paraphrase it is sort of _____ terms. So it looks a little bit like this. Firms _______ goods for households — that's us — and provide us with incomes, and that's even better, because we can spend those incomes on more _____ and services. That's called the circular flow of the economy. It looks harmless enough. I just want to _________ one key _______ of this system, which is the role of investment. Now investment ___________ only about a fifth of the national income in most modern _________, but it plays an absolutely _____ role. And what it does essentially is to _________ further consumption ______. It does this in a couple of ways — _______ productivity, which drives down ______ and encourages us to buy more stuff. But I want to concentrate on the role of investment in seeking out novelty, the production and consumption of novelty. Joseph Schumpeter called this "the process of creative destruction." It's a process of the production and reproduction of novelty, continually chasing expanding consumer markets, consumer goods, new consumer goods.

Solution


  1. highlight
  2. feature
  3. human
  4. chasing
  5. stimulate
  6. growth
  7. apologize
  8. constitutes
  9. produce
  10. vital
  11. goods
  12. prices
  13. economies

Original Text


So I want to just spend a couple of minutes on system dynamics. It's a bit complex, and I apologize for that. What I'll try and do, is I'll try and paraphrase it is sort of human terms. So it looks a little bit like this. Firms produce goods for households — that's us — and provide us with incomes, and that's even better, because we can spend those incomes on more goods and services. That's called the circular flow of the economy. It looks harmless enough. I just want to highlight one key feature of this system, which is the role of investment. Now investment constitutes only about a fifth of the national income in most modern economies, but it plays an absolutely vital role. And what it does essentially is to stimulate further consumption growth. It does this in a couple of ways — chasing productivity, which drives down prices and encourages us to buy more stuff. But I want to concentrate on the role of investment in seeking out novelty, the production and consumption of novelty. Joseph Schumpeter called this "the process of creative destruction." It's a process of the production and reproduction of novelty, continually chasing expanding consumer markets, consumer goods, new consumer goods.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
economic growth 3
human nature 3
civil society 3
billion people 2
absolutely vital 2
consumption growth 2
material stuff 2
blindingly obvious 2
internet search 2
rainforest protection 2
protection project 2
making news 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
rainforest protection project 2

Important Words


  1. absolutely
  2. apologize
  3. bit
  4. buy
  5. called
  6. chasing
  7. circular
  8. complex
  9. concentrate
  10. constitutes
  11. consumer
  12. consumption
  13. continually
  14. couple
  15. creative
  16. destruction
  17. drives
  18. dynamics
  19. economies
  20. economy
  21. encourages
  22. essentially
  23. expanding
  24. feature
  25. firms
  26. flow
  27. goods
  28. growth
  29. harmless
  30. highlight
  31. households
  32. human
  33. income
  34. incomes
  35. investment
  36. joseph
  37. key
  38. markets
  39. minutes
  40. modern
  41. national
  42. novelty
  43. paraphrase
  44. plays
  45. prices
  46. process
  47. produce
  48. production
  49. productivity
  50. provide
  51. reproduction
  52. role
  53. schumpeter
  54. seeking
  55. services
  56. sort
  57. spend
  58. stimulate
  59. stuff
  60. system
  61. terms
  62. vital
  63. ways